dog food

[bwe007]

starting to feed a raw diet. was wondering about glucosomine and vit e especially. should i give vit e along with a daily vit.

[Beagled1]

starting to feed a raw diet. was wondering about glucosomine and vit e especially. should i give vit e along with a daily vit.

Glucosamine is naturally found in the cartilage of animals so when doing raw, you're already supplementing with it! If you think your dog(s) need extra, try feeding turkey or chicken necks for the extra cartilage.

Vitamin E only needs to be supplemented with if you're using fish oil on a regular basis. Otherwise, it's found naturally in egg yolks, as are many other vitamins (A, folate, zinc, copper, selenium, potassium, etc). So feeding the yolks 2-3x a week is like giving a multivitamin ...

[SMytyk]

I feed mostly chicken and beef ribs and the only supplement I use is soft boiled eggs two or three times a week.

I do have a question for other raw feeders. Do you have any suggestions where to find meat for dog food? I've tried craigslist and they all want to sell me stuff that they take to the meat packing plant. The packing houses I've talked to haven't been very cooperative. I even talked to someone who is planning on taking some lambs to slaughter, but insisted the one I wanted to purchase (40 pounds of meat plus offal if I sweet talk the processor) would be $300 instead of just letting me take the whole thing.

[jonesie1]

just a note fyi sams club in western new york now has the large bags of purinia dog food for those who feed it or did feed it

[Beagled1]

I do have a question for other raw feeders. Do you have any suggestions where to find meat for dog food? I've tried craigslist and they all want to sell me stuff that they take to the meat packing plant. The packing houses I've talked to haven't been very cooperative.

I get my meat mainly from the grocery store, but some is from the butcher. Have tried craigslist & freecycle, but in the end the aggrivation wasn't worth the free meat
There is a natural/organic meats store in my area that slaughters their meat on site. I go every weekend just to get a few pounds of free scraps for the dogs from their butchers. I usually come away with some sweet finds, like beef trimmings that are 50/50 fat & meat. The meat on them is as top quality as you can get, these are trimmings from sirloin, filet mignon, etc. For free
My regular butcher sometimes gives me lamb necks, but butchers here seem to be very stingy with their scraps. If you can find something similar, an organic foods store that does their own butchering, I have found those types seem to be very keen on helping out with free or low cost scraps for dogs.
Otherwise, the grocery store is the main place I shop for dog meat. You might have to do a few detours and shop around for places you wouldn't normally go to for rock bottom prices. I buy our meat in a different store than where I get the dog's meats.

[TheLittleBlackBook]

The meat on them is as top quality as you can get, these are trimmings from sirloin, filet mignon, etc. For free

Filet Mignon?!!

My doggies asked when they could move-in


.

[bwe007]

why the yogurt?

[Beagled1]

Filet Mignon?!!

My doggies asked when they could move-in

ROFL! *We* don't even eat filet mignon Maybe if we're lucky the dogs will share their high end scraps with us, lol

ETA: Yogurt contains natural probiotics that assist with digestion ...

[SMytyk]

I finally had some success on craigslist. I found a guy who had some elk meat that he needed to get rid of so he could fit a side of beef in his freezer. I got 65 pounds from him. And I found someone who will sell me a goat for $40. The freezer's getting full of meat for the dogs. It's a shame they eat better than me.

[ahoward]

Little black book, do you leave the bone in the leg quarters? Why yogurt? Oat? Thanks

[scootersjill]

sportmix 24/20 dogs like it solid stool and only a mile away.

[allniter]

I have THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK --PS:: it is worth every penny I paid for it ----yes he leaves the bone in the chicken legs and wings ---they are soft when not cooked

[TheLittleBlackBook]

I have THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK --PS:: it is worth every penny I paid for it ----yes he leaves the bone in the chicken legs and wings ---they are soft when not cooked

Thank you good sir---glad you like it

[S.R.Patch]

I took a beef in to get butchered, payed $300, they seemed offended when I asked for hock and rib bone, ox tail, tongue and heart.
I think the processors have a sweet side deal with marketers for bone, fat and organs. They tried to tell me all kinds of stuff about mad cow disease and how regulators don't allow some things to be put out. My only problem with this is, I raised and fed out this beef, I know there is no disease, drugs or anything injected into this beef.
My question is, Do I have the right to any and all parts of my steer or do they have the right to keep the 35% of the 1200#'s of my steer they deem as waste?

Note; at another butcher shop, I was allowed to buy beef bones @ a $1.00 per pound, as they were labeled "soup bones"

[warddog]

S.R. Patch,
What type of processing establishment did you take your steer to? I'm a USDA Federal Meat and Poultry inspector and there is a difference but most folks don't know it. Was this a Federally inspected plant, a State inspected plant or a Custom Exempt plant? The items that you stated that you wanted are NOT banned from being given back to the owner or even being sold to the public regardless of what type of inspection the plant is under. I don't know exactly where you are located in Indiana but do know that the plant I inspect is one of the few Federally inspected cattle slaughter plants left in the state with the other one being in Ft. Branch, IN. The MAD COW concern is only applied to animals that are 30 months of age or older and the items that would fall under this are eyes, brains, spinal cord and any cuts that contain the spinal cord and it's canal in the back bone except the tail. Any one that has a beef slaughtered that is 30 months or older will NOT get any roasts and or steaks that have the spinal column intact. One prime example would be that you will not see a true "T" bone steak as the backbone would have to be cut so as to remove the spinal column and therefore you would have no "T" bone although you would have the muscles that comprise a regular "T" bone steak. If you got this entire 1200 pound beef and not a half of it you should have gotten the heart, liver, tongue, oxtail, and soup bones. About the only offall they don't give back is the kidneys as they are normally in the knob fat and very hard to get out once that type of fat gets chilled. If you split this beef with someone else you should have gotten half of the preceeding items and the other side got the other half.